At the MFA, hearing more than just wedding bells

The show runs through Oct. 1 at the Museum of Fine Arts. Be warned, it’s in the basement of the Art of the Americas wing, and finding it requires a bit of scouting around. You know you’re getting close when you start hearing music. But we’re saving music for last, remember?

There are wedding dresses. Designers include Arnold Scaasi, Geoffrey Beene, Priscilla of Boston, and Bob Mackie. That’s right, Cher’s go-to guy. The idea of Mackie making wedding gowns is like Caesar’s Palace hosting bingo nights. The beading and décolleté of the dress here are vampy and flapper-ish. One of the two dresses from Priscilla is strapless and seems more Mackie-ish than Mackie’s does. The Beene has the elegantly austere look of a full-length tunic, not that there’s anything austere about silk or satin. As for the Scaasi, one wonders if he knew just how campy all those feathers would look.

The color of a wedding dress from 1889 gives it a more striking appearance than any of the designer ones. That color might most accurately be described as subdued cantaloupe.

What would a wedding be without photos? Here the photographers include famous names: Henri Cartier-Bresson, Edward Weston, Cecil Beaton, Larry Fink, and the pioneering Boston daguerreotype firm of Southworth and Hawes. Try affording any of them in your matrimonial budget.

None of their photographs is as notable as the identity of who took them. That disparity makes sense: Wedding photography is one genre where content matters a whole lot more than form does. The one exception is a 1947 Horst bridal portrait. It’s a knockout. That effect may owe something to the bride’s resemblance to Jodie Comer.

There’s also a selection of snapshots, the kind you might have at home in a (pre-digital) photo album. The juxtaposition of famous names and anonymity is an instance of how much ground “Something Old” can cover.

The show includes wedding accessories. Some weren’t meant for public display: stockings, shoes, a corset, a brassiere. Others were, and very much so: fans, hair ornaments, headpieces, jewelry.

It pays to look at the wall texts. That cherishably simple wedding ring was made by Paul Revere. Yes, that Paul Revere. That turquoise eagle brooch, with a pearl in each claw: Not only did Queen Victoria give one to each of her dozen (dozen!) train bearers, but it was designed by the groom, Prince Albert. Like every wedding, “Something Old” has its share of backstories.

Attending to the wall text comes at a price. The gush factor is high. Beene was “iconic.” Mackie dressed “entertainment icons.” The MFA owns some of Scaasi’s “most iconic looks.” Somewhere Malcolm Rogers is smiling. There’s also the castigation factor. The words “whitewashed,” “appropriated,” and “colonial” get bandied about in ways that seem more reflexive than illuminating. After describing the admittedly awful origins of the bride tossing her garter, the text asks: “With this knowledge, would you engage in this centuries-old tradition today?”

There’s that matter of music. “Something Old” has a soundtrack. It plays on a continuous loop. Most of the songs are fine. Who doesn’t like listening to Stevie Wonder (”As”) or Luther Vandross (”Here and Now”) or Whitney Houston (”I Wanna Dance With Somebody”)? A chance to hear Etta James (here singing “At Last”) is always welcome. The problem is how distracting the music can be and the way it cheapens the experience of being in the gallery. Is hearing the music fun? Sure, it’s fun, in the same way that hearing music at the mall is fun; and, like hearing music at the mall, its presence here is calculated and manipulative. In contrast, “As We Rise: Photographs From the Black Atlantic,” which just opened at the Peabody Essex Museum, has a soundtrack, too. It’s more pointed, though, and better suits the larger, cultural thrust of that exhibition.

In fairness to “Something Old,” the MFA seems to have a larger issue with music. Last year, there was the knock-off of Beethoven’s “Moonlight Sonata” playing at the start of the great Turner retrospective. With the current Hokusai show, there’s the Japanese techno music introducing the exhibition, then inside there’s a snippet of Debussy’s “La Mer.”

Employing music sounds like the sort of thing an audience-engagement consultant came up with. People like listening to music! If we play music while people look at art, maybe more of them will come to look at the art!

Maybe. Yes, music is popular; and, yes, people like to do other things while listening to it: exercise or walk or cook or drive or . . . whatever. In each case, music enhances the experience rather than detract from it. Not to get all snooty about this, but looking at art — even just casually looking at art — is different from any of those other experiences. It doesn’t require a soundtrack; and visitors aren’t paying $27 a pop so they can listen to music while checking out the art. Admittedly, Spotify is not as satisfying to look at as what’s at the MFA, but for listening it’s a lot cheaper and more convenient (a lot more popular, too). Walter Pater, the progenitor of art for art’s sake, said all art aspires to the condition of music. That may or may not be true. What is true is that art doesn’t aspire to the condition of visual accompaniment.

SOMETHING OLD, SOMETHING NEW: Wedding Fashions and Traditions

At Museum of Fine Arts, 465 Huntington Ave., through Oct. 1. 617-267-9300, www.mfa.org

Mark Feeney can be reached at mark.feeney@globe.com.